Player Skills
Players who gain a skill level in training receive a small green arrow besides their skill. Player who lose a skill level receive a small red arrow accordingly. You can read more about training in the training section of this guide.
There are four differend kinds of skills in Trophy Manager: Physical skills (shared by outfield players and goalies), player skills, goalkeeper skills and hidden skills. All players, regardless of their position, have got physical and hidden skills. On top of that goalkeepers have specific goalkeeping skills and players have specific player skills.
You cannot gain direct access to your players' hidden skills. But most hidden skills can be scouted through careful reading of your match-reports. (At a later stage of the development of the game the not-yet-implemented scouts and medical centre will be able to provide some degree of insight into players' hidden skills.)
If a player is fx constantly booked or sent off during matches, it is very likely that he has a high 'aggressiveness' hidden skill and maybe a low 'professionalism' skill too. If a player on the other hand is constantly injured again and again, it is most likely a bad 'injury proneness' hidden skill which is at work. You can read more about the skills below.
Hidden Skills
Injury Proneness
Injury - the nightmare of any ambitious footballer. As in real life, not all players get injured at all, and some players seem to draw injuries to them like the french get drawn to Arsenal. How often a player is injured is decided by the hidden skill 'Injury Proneness'. The players who have been cursed with an extremely high injury proneness may not be able to play more than 5-10 matches per season. It is up to you to consider the pros and cons of a player cursed by the injury gods and decide whether they are worth the salary you pay them every week.
Talent and Bloom
A players talent and bloom hidden skills make up his total potential to learn new skills through training. Think of talent and bloom as two bags of potential; The talent bag contains the skill the player will receive constantly from age 16 to 27, while the skill in the bloom bag is given during the three season bloom every player goes through somewhere between age 16 and 27. You can read more about blooming below under bloom age.
Bloom Age
The hidden skill bloom age decides when a player blooms. The day the player turns the age equivalent to his bloom age he will bloom for three season. Blooming means that a player's bloom skill is dealt out (see above under bloom). You acn also read more extensively about player development in the training section of this guide.
Adaptability
When a player plays in a different position than his FP, his adaptability decides how well he copes with the new position. A player with a good adaptability will play just as well in non-FP positions as he will when he is positioned in his FP. A player with really bad adaptability may be reduces as much as 40% in each and every skill, because he is unable to adjust to his new position
Fig. 1: Adaptability at Work
The above figure illustrates the way adaptability works on a right defender (DR) and a central midfielder (MC) respectively. A green dot indicates the FP of the player. The rest of the dots indicate the maximum possible reduction a player may experience ranging from 10% (yellow) over 20% (orange) and 30% (bright red) to the ultimate maximum of 40% (dark red).
The way the maximum recudtion is calculated is this: The possible reduction in player skill is lessened the closer a player is to his FP. The two axis "chain" and "side" are calculated seperately. For each "chain" (D, DM, M, OM, F) the player moves away from his FP, the maximum possible reduction is increased by 10%.
The "side" reduction is more complex: If a player has only got a "wing" FP or two winger FPs, he will be reduced 10% for playing on the "wrong" wing and 20% if he plays a central position. If a player has only central FPs he will be reduced 20% if he is moved onto either wing.
Peaks
Each player has his own unique potential in the physical, tactical and technical department. The physical peak governs the skills of strength, stamina, pace and heading. The tactical peak governs the skills of marking, tackling, work rate and positioning. The technical peak governs the skills passing, crossing, technique, finishing, long shots and set pieces. Once a player reaches his peak in any department any training assigned to this skill will be randomised across all skills. This means that players who have reached a peak may still improve in the peaked department, but chances are slim.
Specialist Skill
All players have a specialist skill which simulates the bias of their natural talent. A small amount of the player's total training will be automatically assigned to his specialist skill.
Aggression
A player's aggression doesn't affect his performances. What it does is decide how well the player controls his temper during matches. Players with a high aggression skill will be given lots of bookings and are likely to be sent off quite a few times during a season. Look over a player's 'Cards'-statistics if you want an impression of that player's aggression
Professionalism
Professionalism is an important skill, and it affects not only how well a player performs on the pitch, but also how fast he improves in training.
